It took 90 days and over 100,000 entries for India to get its second 'made in India' Doodle. Dennis Hwang - the Master Doodler – and Jennifer Hom – the creative force behind the Google Gandhi doodle - chose the winning doodle for India out of the 41 semi- finalists.

Akshay Raj, grade IX student from St. Aloysius High School, Mangalore, has been announced as the winner for this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. His doodle was chosen from over 108, 000 doodles submitted by students across the country, and was selected based on artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme.

The winning doodle titled "Technically and Naturally Growing India" is live on the Google India home page. The winner Akshay Raj also received a Technology Starter Package and an INR 2, 00,000 technology grant for his school.

The Doodle4Google competition was open to all students from 1st-10th standard. This year participants were challenged to imagine their own version of the Google logo based on the theme "My Dream for India”. From ‘A cleaner, greener India’ to ‘Freedom from poverty’ to ‘Education for all’ to ‘The world’s center of technology’ to ‘Better roads’ the doodles showcased the imagination of young Indian children and gave them an opportunity to display their talent on a national platform. Submitted doodles were shortlisted by partner art schools from across the country, after which 9051 doodles entered the quarter final round. Faculty from the Sir JJ School of Arts then shortlisted the 600 doodles that made it to the semi final round. An esteemed panel of judges that included renowned sculpture artist, Arzan Kambhatta, multi disciplinary artist Bose Krishnamachari and the popular host of the multi-award winning arts show Rob then picked our finalists.

Besides the national winner, three group winners were also chosen. These were picked through an online voting system where the Indian public voted for their favourite doodle from the finalists. Khushi Mahender (Group I) 1st grader from Ryan International won the group prize for her doodle titled ‘Go Green Worldwide’, Tahera Sohail’s (Group II) 6th grader from Kolkata won the prize for her doodle titled ‘This is Green India’. And V Vinoth Kumar’s (Group III) 9th Grader from Chennai won the prize for his doodle titled ‘My Dream for India’. The group winners were each awarded a Technology Starter package. This year Google also introduced the ‘Special Judges’ Award’. These are doodles that our final judges – Dennis Hwang and Jennifer Hom - felt were very creative, close 2nd places in the groups. Anwesh Saha from Kolkata, Sanjali Desai from Mumbai and Nishi Bordia from Indore from Mumbai were awarded the Special Judges’ Award in Groups I, II and III respectively.

Doodle4Google has become a global platform giving young children an opportunity to showcase their talent globally. In India, this year’s competition noticed great enthusiasm from kids around the country, as the entries crossed the 100,000 mark from just 4500 entries we got last year. What is also interesting to note is that we saw participation not just from the metros but children from smaller cities also participated in large numbers, indicating that Internet today has become a mainstream medium for students all across the country. ” said Nikhil Rungta Country Marketing Manager for Google India.

So what is a Google Doodle? "Doodles" are creative Google logos that appear on some special days, to commemorate scientific and artistic achievements, historic or seasonal events, and other local occasions. Their eye-catching designs also often teach you something new about a day, event or occasion whenever you happen to stumble upon them. For over a decade, Google has been designing innovative logos called ‘Doodles’ for its homepage and Dennis Hwang – the master doodler – has been driving this innovation. In August 2010, Google India decided to unleash the creativity of thousands of children in India as we announced India’s second doodling competition called Doodle4Google™.